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maintained a resolution of seeing with their SERM. own eyes, all this must have been prevent- VII. ed. What a melancholy thing to think, that men fhould receive, as articles of faith, the groffeft abfurdities! That they should fuffer themselves to be led quite aftray from the true paths of religion and virtue' to mere vanity and folly, to moft infigni-' ficant, and many of them ridiculous, rites and forms, fubftituted in the room of thefe! That princes and great men should efpoufe fuch a caufe, and become the executioners of the decrees of the church, to the ruin of their own fubjects, and filling the world about them with blood and flaughter! Deftroying and devouring without end, and having the ferocity and cruelty, which might be natural to fome of them, greatly increased by religious zeal, or rather religious phrenzy, which was indeed enough to beget fuch cruelty of difpofition, where it had originally no place in the temper! Dreadful cafe, that mankind fhould be fo deluded! How weak a thing is fuperftition! However, all was owing originally to men's giving up their own reason, and judgment, and fenfes, and refufing, perhaps I fhould rather fay,

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SERM. not daring, to make the best of the underVII. standings, which God had given them, and the best of their bibles for the direction of their own conduct, in matters of the highest concern to every individual.

Thirdly, as we clearly difcern what is the foundation of all this intolerable fervitude, we may fee plainly what the true method of preventing it is, and by what means the tyranny, which hath impofed it, muft at last be overthrown. Let men, each for himself, inquire with fincerity and diligence into the will of God concerning him; attend carefully to the voice of reafon; fearch the holy fcriptures with an unbiaffed mind, and follow the decisions of his own confcience, which God hath planted in every man, as a witness for himself and for truth, and hath left free from all human authority. There needeth no more, but the univerfal prevalence of this fpirit, to fap the foundations of the antichriftian kingdom, and all fpiritual tyranny whatsoever. The word of God we have in our hands, the facred unalterable records of the religion of Chrift, a moft inestimable, treasure. Let us acquaint ourfelves thoroughly with these,

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and always cleave to the truth, as we have SERM. learned it from Chrift; not doubting to VII. depart from any human decifions, which we difcern to be contrary to it. Cleaving to truth, without any regard to the confequences of our doing fo, however inconvenient to ourselves. This, we are fure, can never lead us aftray; it can never hurt the religion of Christ; it can never hurt our own most valuable interefts. It is what becomes us, as creatures endowed with reafon; it becometh us as Chriftians, fo to inquire and judge for ourselves, and it is the fure foundation, upon which we stand as Proteftants. Had the right of private judgment been always afferted and maintained, Antichrift could never have been ; and when that facred right cometh to be univerfally afferted, and men follow the voice of their own reafon and confciences, Antichrift can be no more. And as fincerity, in inquiring into and doing the will of God concerning us, will be always pleafing to our reflecting thoughts, so it will give us boldness in the day of judg

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VIII.

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VIII.

The Apoftle John's character and writings confidered,

JOHN XXI. 24.

This is the difciple, which teftifietb thefe things, and wrote thefe things, and we know, that bis teftimony is true.

PROPOSE, in this difcourfe, to make fome obfervations upon the character and writings of the Apostle John. He is called the difciple, whom Jefus loved. Our Bleffed Lord had an extraordinary degree of affection for him, and lived in a peculiar intimacy with him. Upon fome remarkable occafions, when our Saviour retired from his followers, John and one or two more were admitted

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VIII.

to attend him; as we find in the history SERM. of the transfiguration, and when he was in those distressful agonies of fpirit, which he fuffered before he became a prifoner to the Jews. In the account given us of the laft fupper, this Apoftle is faid to have leaned on Jefus's bofom; that is, according to the posture at table, which was then used, he was next to him; and when our Lord fpake of being betrayed by one of them, who were his difciples, and who that very time fat at table with him, Peter beckoned to John (probably as the person, who had the greateft intimacy, and was the propereft to put such a queftion to him) to afk, who this fhould be? He appeareth, indeed, to have been fit to be an intimate friend of our Saviour; for he had very much of his spirit in him, a spirit of devotion, of purity, and love: thefe, especially the laft, are very signal in his character, and run through all his writings.

In difcourfing upon this fubject, I fhall, in the first place, fhew, that the religion of Chrift, as John hath represented it, is very worthy of such a teacher sent of God: Secondly, I fhall make fome remarks upon the fimplicity and artless manner, in which

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